Macbeth starts out as a general serving King Duncan. However, he a trio of witches give him two prophecies. One that he will be “Thane of Cawldor”. The second one is that he will be king. The witches also tell Mac’s pal, Banquo that he will father a line of kings. The don’t know whether or not they should believe the witches or not but within moments, Mac is named Thane of Cawldor. He then decides that the witches arent total crackpots after all. He tells his wife about the prophecies and she comes up with the idea that he should off the king, who by the way he and his wife are guests of. Mac is hesitant about this but his wife continues to goad him and he goes through with it. The next morning, MacDuff, the thane of Fife and some other guy arrive. They find out Duncan’s corpse and Macbeth blames the servants and then kills those servants before they can say they didn’t do it. Soon after, Mac’s uneasy about the second part of the prophecy involving Banquo being a successor as well. Consequently, he hires some dudes to off Banquo and his kid. They are able to kill Banquo but Fleance (the kid) gets away. Later Banquo’s ghost appears at a dinner and this scares Macbeth so he goes back to the witches for help. They conjure some apparations that give him some warnings. The first is to “beware Macduff” and also that “none of woman born pose a threat to Macbeth”. The third prophecy is that “”never be vanquish’d until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him”. Macduff is in exile so Macbeth has Macduff’s family slaughtered. Macduff finds out of this eventually and then returns from exile. He and some other lead some people from the Birnam wood. They camoflage themselves with trees to hide their numbers and head to Dunsinane Castle where Macbeth is. Moreover, there is another loophole in the witches’ prophecies: Macduff was ripped prematurely from his mother’s womb. Therefore he wasn’t of woman born. In summary, this just isn’t Macbeth’s day and he gets his butt kicked.

I may have left out some parts but that’s basically the important stuff in regards to the plot.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Here is a small part of the summary, click the link for the full summary and much, much more.

Plot Summary

By Michael J. Cummings © 2003

.

…….In a desert place during a thunderstorm, three witches conclude a meeting. They decide to convene next on a heath to confront the great Scottish general Macbeth on his return from a war between Scotland and Norway. As they depart, they recite a paradox that foreshadows events in the play: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” In other words, what is perceived as good will be bad; what is perceived as bad will be good. More…….

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xMacbeth.html

(STUDY GUIDES.)

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xMacbeth.html

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/macbeth/

http://www.freebooknotes.com/book.php3?id=251

http://www.antistudy.com/search.php?title=Macbeth

Why not read the play? It’ not very long and it’s not as hard as you might think. Many phases from it have become modern cliches, and it’s interesting to know where they came from.

You could also try to find a video in your public or school library. Shakespeare’s plays were not intended to be read, after all, they were meant to be staged and seen, and you might find it easier to understand that way.

SparkNotes is your friend:

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/summary.html